Morning Fiasco
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (124142)
Gainesville, Florida
December 3, 2023 5:40pm CST
Sometime in the wee hours of the morning—before the sun came up—my girlfriend and I were awakened suddenly to a large crashing sound. Both of us turned and looked at each other and immediately thought the same thing…that the huge LED snowflake decoration that we hung on the outside of the front of our house…had fallen. Because it was raining at the time, I told her I would deal with when we got up later in the morning.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at my bedroom door. It was my daughter. She said “Dad, you have to come see this.” So I got up and followed her out into the living room. And there I saw the source of the crashing sound: our 11-ft high Christmas tree had toppled over! I just stood there scratching my head. “ How on earth could that have happened?”
I was in no hurry to clean up the mess, so I told everybody to just leave it and go back to bed. We would deal with it later.
A few hours later, I got up and cooked everyone breakfast. While I was doing that, my daughter and girlfriend cleaned up the mess and put the Christmas tree back up. That was very nice of them, as I had planned on doing it after breakfast.
Have you ever had a Christmas tree fiasco, or any other kind of holiday fiasco?
Note: we never did figure out why the tree fell. And no, we don’t have pets.
25 people like this
25 responses
@RasmaSandra (84651)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
3 Dec 23
My thoughts on the Christmas tree there could have been an earth tremor that shook the floor and toppled the tree. The tree might have been on a tilt which you all did not see and finally toppled over. Finally, there is an angry spirit in your house that does not like Christmas and it toppled the tree,
8 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
I’m going to go with choice number two, the crooked tree. We determined that that trunk of the tree is not naturally straight, and it caused the tree to lean to one side, although it looked perfectly straight and upright.
4 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
Yeah, we all pretty much laughed about it. And once they got the tree stood back up, they realized that most of the ornaments stayed intact on the tree, so cleanup was even faster than expected. I had to wash the tree skirt since the water in the tree stand spilled all over it, but other than that it wasn’t as big of a deal as we had thought.
3 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Dec 23
@shaggin We all got a chuckle out of it. At least we all saw the humor in the situation and didnt freak out about the situation.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
The first thing I said when I saw the tree was, “Who let a squirrel into the house?” Lol
3 people like this
@Tina30219 (82906)
• Onaway, Michigan
4 Dec 23
Sorer to hear this happened at least nobody was hurt especially vehicles. We have never had anything like this happen.
3 people like this
@Tina30219 (82906)
• Onaway, Michigan
4 Dec 23
@moffittjc Yes you definitely did get lucky that nothing was damaged in the fall.
3 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
No damage to people, walls, furniture, or even the ornaments. We got lucky, absolut nothing got damaged in the fall.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
@Tina30219 We did get lucky. Now we just need to hope that the tree doesn’t topple over again! Lol
2 people like this
@jnrdutton (3319)
• United States
3 Dec 23
My mother's cats used to love literally climbing her tree, until she got a spray to deter it. I am curious why the tree fell in your case, that's just odd if you have no pets.
4 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
In all the years I’ve had cats as pets, never once did they topple a. Christmas tree. Weird that it happened at a time I had no pets.
3 people like this
@MarieCoyle (43529)
•
4 Dec 23
Sometimes, things happen and we never do know just why. The main thing was no one was hurt. I am sure it was a huge mess though. Hey, you didn't have a secret, surprise squirrel living in your tree, did you? Like Chevy Chase's tree in Christmas Vacation? 
3 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Dec 23
@MarieCoyle I guess Santa and his elves were looking after us. We were really lucky nothing was damaged.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
That was the first thought I had in mind, was that we had a squirrel living in our tree!
Fortunately for us, the mess wasn’t that bad. Most of the ornaments stayed on the tree, and none of them got broken in the fall.
3 people like this
@MarieCoyle (43529)
•
4 Dec 23
@moffittjc
Well , I am glad you didn’t have to chase down a squirrel! Glad nothing was broken, that’s amazing!
3 people like this
@snowy22315 (189004)
• United States
3 Dec 23
Yes, 9 times out of 10 it is pet related, but occasionally it just gets off balance somehow and topples over.
3 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
We figured it was off balance. The trunk of the tree is kinda curving one way, but you couldn’t really tell from just looking at the tree.
2 people like this
@much2say (57522)
• Los Angeles, California
4 Dec 23
Oh wow, that's a really tall tree! That'd never fit in our house! Speaking of which, and it wasn't exactly a fiasco but more of mismeasurement, Hubby bought a fresh tree once and it was a few inches too tall for our living room. It had to stay bent at the top in order to fit . . . in fact I could still see the scratch marks on the ceiling from here .
.3 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
That’s funny! There was one time I brought home a tree just barely too tall to fit. But we cut the base of the tree and it just had room to fit. I have cathedral ceilings in my current house, so I’ll never have to worry about how tall our tree is. In fact, we have actually been getting a bigger one each year for the past couple of years.
2 people like this
@kaylachan (77472)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
4 Dec 23
Sometimes it just happens. If it was off-balance even just a little it could've been unstable and just fell. At least no one was hurt.
3 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
Yeah, we determined that the tree was slightly off balance due to the way the trunk was curved. But the weird thing is you couldn’t really tell just by looking at the tree. It had looked like it was perfectly upright.
2 people like this
@FourWalls (74425)
• United States
4 Dec 23
Sympathy toppling after the tornado warning north of you yesterday?
I majored in fiascos in college. 
Glad everything’s okay.
Glad everything’s okay.3 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
Well, we did have nasty weather yesterday, so maybe the tree was having a nightmare about getting blown over in the wind. Haha
3 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
Ooh neat, I always wanted a gremlin!
2 people like this
@jstory07 (143796)
• Roseburg, Oregon
4 Dec 23
@moffittjc They are bad and you never see them. They do laugh at you for never catching them.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Dec 23
@jstory07 Heck, I laugh at myself! So I surely don’t mind some little elusive gremlins laughing at me as well.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (473819)
• Switzerland
4 Dec 23
@moffittjc Poor cats, may be it was the usual gremlins.
Poor cats, may be it was the usual gremlins.2 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
@LadyDuck Those gremlins haven’t visited my house in quite a while!
2 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
Even though I don’t have a cat, I may blame one nonetheless.
2 people like this
@wolfgirl569 (115618)
• Marion, Ohio
4 Dec 23
Maybe it was not completely straight. I had a cat knock one over one time
3 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Dec 23
@wolfgirl569 The issue does seem to be fixed. The tree is holding up well.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
We determined it was leaning slightly due to a slight curvature of the trunk. I think we got it all fixed now (hopefully there won’t be another loud crash in the middle of the night.
3 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
It was the tallest one at the tree lot we went to. I have 20-foot high cathedral ceilings in my house, so even such a tall tree looks small in our living room.
3 people like this
@sallypup (64157)
• Centralia, Washington
4 Dec 23
@moffittjc My elderly house has probably only 10 foot ceilings though my fake tree sits in an alcove by the stairs so it could be higher there. I am content with a four foot tree, sitting on a vintage crock.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Dec 23
@sallypup I’m sure it’s very beautiful. And it’s not about the size of the tree, but the warmth, joy and love it brings to the home.
@GardenGerty (163362)
• United States
4 Dec 23
My fiasco was a huge cedar tree that fell in my front yard in July. It was an evergreen so that counts as being a Christmas tree. I wonder about earth quakes where you are. Just one small tremor.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Dec 23
Fortunately for us here in Florida, we don’t get earthquakes!
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
We we happy that the way the tree fell, it didn’t hit anything in its way. It fell toward the one spot that was totally clear—no furniture or other breakables in its way.
1 person likes this
@LeaPea2417 (37808)
• Toccoa, Georgia
4 Dec 23
Oh goodness, no that has never happened to me. The only thing I can recall that was a fiasco was the year when my Mom had invited some relatives for Christmas and right before the party, they call saying they can't come.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
Up until this instance, I never had any kind of holiday mishap. I guess there is always a first time for everything.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
It’s possible the jolly guy had a little too much eggnog. It would explain a lot.
2 people like this
@just4him (318816)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
4 Dec 23
@moffittjc Yes, it would explain a lot.
2 people like this
@aninditasen (17032)
• Raurkela, India
4 Dec 23
Early in the morning finding a mess at home is really irritating. However I do clean up the mess first in such a situation. I can't eat anything in such a condition.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
Normally, I would have cleaned up the mess first, but everyone was hungry so I felt like we would all work better on a full stomach.
2 people like this
@aninditasen (17032)
• Raurkela, India
5 Dec 23
@moffittjc That's true when you have members in a family. I stay alone so I clean the mess first.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (188028)
• United States
4 Dec 23
It was Christmas gremlins. Haven't had any holiday fiascos. Hope you and the family have a good week.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (124142)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Dec 23
Those Christmas gremlins strike again!
2 people like this
